Maine Beer?

Maybe I follow BA more than most people but when I lived in Ca. I'd heard of it and now I'm in D.C. and was able to track some down. I had Peeper and Uncle Tom's I believe and was a little disappointed by both to be honest. I would still be willing to try those or other of their beers again.

 

Are you speaking of beer brewed from Maine in general OR MBC [Maine Brewing Co..]... In either case, I guess, part could be due to lack of widespread distrubtion and ability to get beer out there? I know the MBC stuff is great [LOVE Zoe, Lunch and Uncle Tom's; Peeper is pretty good as well]... Or are there are other breweries you are referring to? Seems like the craft brewery options are at amazingly high levels for consumers to choose from - at the very least when walking into a store...and TONS of people tend to veer towards the breweries that have rare/small distroed special release...

 

If you want to know how lucky you are to live in Maine as far as craft beer is concerned, come to Texas for a week!
Enjoy what you have my friend.
Thank God for Freetail!

 

We are launching our beer there this week. Going to be in Bangor for an event on Thursday.

 

allagash and maine beer company have a good rep. as for competing with the rest of the nation, the thing about competition is that not everybody wins.

however, why is beer a competition? i don't really feel like a referee when i buy beer, to be honest.

 

I'm traveling to Boston this weekend from Chicago. Are there any stores where I can get Maine Beer Co bottles?

 

We should form the BCS (beer championship series) to choose a winner!

 

Its always been somewhat of a struggle to get Maine Lunch in MA. I think that's a good sign. The few times I've had that beer fresh I thought it was fantastic. Zoe is also awesome when nugget nectar is not in season (now).

Allagash gets a ton of love as well. White seems to be the benchmark American wit, and their coolship series is pretty well respected. I do ignore their large format beers though due to the high prices. I've heard nothing but great things about curieux, but at $18....I pass.

 

People should really pay more attention to Rising Tide. Their "flagship" Ishmael isn't anything to write home about, but everything else top notch IMO

 

I feel that Maine in general is underestimated. That is probably because Maine's tourist population is primarily all from the Northeast, and not many people outside that go there, or at least for a beercation that is. Their breweries also don't have to biggest distribution compared to others across the nation.

It really is an under the radar state (which isn't a bad thing) when it comes to bars, breweries and bottleshops. I just graduated from UMaine a few months ago, and moved back to Cape Cod, and I already miss Maine. Beautiful state with a lot of good beer.

 

Outside of the Rob Tod/Jason Perkins combination, Maine doesn't have any well-known, widely respected brewers (There is Alan Pugsley, but we all know how his beers are viewed by the craft beer drinker community). Of course, as soon as Tod Mott opens his new place in southern Maine, he can be added to the list. Also, outside of the Allagash special releases and some love for Lunch, there isn't a beer that generates a lot of hype or trade furor like you find in neighboring states (Heady Topper, Kate, any Hill Farmstead, etc.).

What we do have is plenty of small places making great beer. MBC, Rising Tide, Oxbow and Marshall Wharf all have minimal to no distribution, so there is no way they are going to become well-known across the country. I don't really mind this, and not just because it means more of their beers for us Mainers. In one of the recent Beer Smack articles in the BA Mag, the bros talked about supporting good local breweries. I find all four I mentioned above, plus many other Maine brewers are worthy of my support. I don't need them to be well-known; I'll drink their beers regardless of reputation.

Maybe some day this perception of Maine breweries will change, but for now, I'm happy with the occasional respect they get.

 

My thoughts exactly. Most of the breweries in Maine don't get the same hype as those from Vermont, but to my mind it's probably the best beer state in New England.

I love how much excellent beer there is being brewed in Maine, flying right under the radar, and how relatively easy it is to find. I can't think of a city in New England where it's easier to find top-notch, locally brewed beer on-tap than Portland. And you can now find beers from places like Oxbow and Marshall Wharf at multiple places even in Kittery. I love Hill Farmstead, but due to their remote location and the (warranted) hype around their beers, it's pretty hard to find them on-tap in Vermont outside of a few bars.

Whatever the views of the Pugsley beers are here, I still like that there seem to be layers or generations of brewers and beer in Maine. Maybe Shipyard and Gritty's are the entry level into craft beer, or the pioneers in the 1980s; then you have places like Sebago, maybe the next generation, and still unintimidating but more interesting to a lot of beer enthusiasts; and then the newest batch of brewers making "geekier" beer, like Oxbow. They all play their part, and that range means that more people are drinking Maine-brewed beer.

I also think the state has a good balance of brewpubs and production breweries, and a good distribution of breweries and really high-quality bars throughout the state. Obviously, there's the cluster around Portland, but there are brewpubs and bars (Ebenezer's, for example) in the middle-of-nowhere.

Maybe Maine breweries don't get the respect or attention they deserve outside of the state, but I love how easy it is for me to find something from Oxbow, MW, Rising Tide, Bunker, MBC, Sebago and of course Allagash even in the most unassuming bar in Portland. And I love heading over to the Great Lost Bear to try something from some little brewery that I've never heard of, that's been turning out English-style ales for almost 20 years. It might not blow me away, knowing that there are little breweries in far-off towns that have been around that long, as well as the wonderful newer breweries tells me that Maine has an excellent beer and brewing scene.

 

You are correct on all fronts lol. I believe it was Mean Old Tom and I am very much an IPA guy .